Saturday, June 11, 2016

Supreme Court Legalizes Sex With Animals in Canada

In a 7-to-1 ruling this week, the Canadian Supreme Court acquitted "D.L.W.," a British Columbia man convicted of 13 counts of rape and incest, of bestiality because he didn't insert his penis into the family dog but rather only engaged in other sex acts with the animal, and failed in his attempts to insert the dog's penis into his stepdaughters.

"Although bestiality was often subsumed in terms such as sodomy or buggery, penetration was the essence - 'the defining act' - of the offence."-- Supreme Court of Canada (majority opinion)"People who sexually abuse animals are sometimes linked to sexually abusing children as well, as the accused did in this case. That's a really good reason parliament needs to act [to change the law]."-- Camille Labchuk, Animal Justice

First we see it in Canada, then it permeates the U.S. (click headlines below):

DLW's attorneys argued that bestiality linked to "buggery" - or sodomy - with animals beginning with an 1892 criminal code. Bestiality was first used in a 1955 code, but still was not defined to encompass every sex act with animals.

According to court record DLW smeared peanut butter on the genitals of his victims and had the family dog lick it off while he videotaped the act.

Court documents disclose that DLW attempted to have the dog perform intercourse on the stepdaughter, but that ultimately failed.

DLW is serving a 16 year prison sentence. He brought the bestitality conviction to the court on appeal.

Canada’s legal definition of bestiality is rather amorphous. Before 1859, Canada prosecuted depraved sex offenses under the English Buggery Act, a broad prohibition on sodomy. Thereafter, an anti-buggery law was incorporated into the Consolidated Statutes of Canada as a capital crime. The Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1969, championed by Pierre Trudeau, later prime minister and father to current Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, repealed the laws.

“Applying the principles that guide statutory interpretation leads to the conclusion in this case that the term bestiality has a well-established legal meaning and refers to sexual intercourse between a human and an animal. Penetration has always been understood to be an essential element of bestiality,” the [Supreme Court] opinion read.

Justice Thomas Cromwell, writing for the majority, pored over the history of the law — and its evolution from Church of England prohibitions in the 16th century to early laws enacted in colonial Canada — and ruled that lawmakers have always intended to single out only a certain subset of animal abusers.

The Criminal Code does not expressly say that a penetrative act is necessary to be considered an offence. But Cromwell said that's what generations of lawmakers intended and subsequent legislative changes have added little clarity.

The only justice in the minority, Rosalie Abella, rejected the majority's decision. "Acts with animals that have a sexual purpose are inherently exploitative whether or not penetration occurs, and the prevention of sexual exploitation is what the 1988 amendments were all about," she wrote in her dissenting opinion.

The Canadian legislature process recently made international news after the Liberal Party, led by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, introduced a new bill seeking to establish two year prison terms for people found guilty of transgender discrimination.

"There remains much to be done, though. Far too many people still face harassment, discrimination, and violence for being who they are. This is unacceptable," Trudeau said at the time, noting that the bill would expand existing "hate speech" prohibitions to include any public speech or communication that "promotes hatred" on the basis of "gender identity" or "gender expression," which is aimed at defending transgender people.

The question is a troublesome one here in the U.S. as well, dividing liberals and serving as a watchword to conservatives.

Recently, for instance, animal rights activists in Ohio were rallying for the legislature to make it more explicit that sex between humans and animals is forbidden by state law.

Ohio is one of only eleven U.S. states that don’t have any bestiality laws on the books, advocates say.

The U.S. and Canada are no outliers in having a mixed record when dealing with bestiality. A recent article from the Daily Mail lamented the troubling new trend of “animal brothels” rising in Germany as many humans are claiming sex with animals is just another “lifestyle choice.”